Nasty, Brutish, and Short

Daniel Pujol seems like the kind of guy you’d want to have a beer with, even though the odds seem good that you’d end up in another state or possibly awake under a tree at dawn. Daniel and his Nashville bandmates have churned out an unnatural amount of music in two years, on roughly six labels, and Nasty, Brutish, and Short is the most cohesive collection yet. It’s indeed short (less than 20 minutes) and not particularly brutish or nasty, but it does pack a wallop. He’s got a real feel for garage punk: “Mayday” is a pretty near-perfect garage rocker, with big chunks of drums and tincan-edge guitars pounding a stomp-worthy melody. On tunes like “Scully” and “Stuff,” a wee bit of punk creeps into his raspy, pained vocals and rusty blades of guitar. On tracks like “Battles” and “Point of View,” Pujol’s Tennessee twang mixes it up with a ‘60s rock swagger—think Deer Tick meets early Rolling Stones—and you can almost smell the sweat and stale bourbon. Pujol is a smart and intriguing artist with a quirky body of work thus far; his future will be something to watch.